Why You Should Start Your Path at the Polytechnic@UofM 

 

 

POLYTECHNIC@UOFM  ·  HERFF COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

You've Already Started. Let's Finish It.

 

Almost nobody gets to a bachelor’s degree in a straight line.

Maybe you have a TCAT diploma, an Applied Associate of Science degree from a community college, or a stack of industry certifications, or a degree from Moore Tech. Maybe you’ve spent ten years on a shop floor, a job site, a server rack, or a flight line, and the only thing standing between you and the next job title is a credential you never had time to go get.

The Polytechnic@UofM was built for exactly that situation, not as a consolation path but the smart one.

Here’s the difference: we started with the jobs. We looked at who Memphis employers are actually hiring, what they’re paying, and what the future with AI will be. Then we worked backwards to build degrees that get you there without wasting a single course you’ve already earned.

What that means for you

• Serious transfer credit. All your coursework from technical education transfers.
• Credit for what you already know. Work experience, technical licensures, and industry certifications can convert to academic credit. Less time. Less tuition. Same degree.
• Applied AI, everywhere. It’s a BAS concentration, a BSET focus area, and a graduate certificate—deliberately built “code-light” for professionals who need to lead AI adoption, not write the models themselves.
• Aviation, on both sides of the cockpit door. A B.S. in Commercial Aviation if you want to fly, and Aviation Management if you want to run the operation—in a city built around one of the busiest air cargo hubs on the planet.
• Certifications built into the coursework. You don’t graduate and then go chase credentials. You graduate holding both.
• No calculus wall. Many of our programs top out at College Algebra. The barrier that stopped a lot of capable people is gone.
• Online and in person. Take it at 6 a.m. on your phone or Tuesday nights on campus. Most of our students are working while they do this—the schedule bends toward you.
• Dual major. Already pursuing a degree somewhere else at the U of M? Add a Polytechnic major and walk out with technical, job-ready skills layered on top of it.
• Stackable from the start. Certificate to associate to bachelor’s to master’s. Every step counts toward the next one, and every step has value on its own if life interrupts.

The payoff

Graduates who can do the technical work and explain it to the people signing the checks. That’s the profile Memphis employers keep telling us they can’t find—the hybrid professional who understands the machine, the data, and the business case at the same time.

That combination shows up in your paycheck, in your title, and in how quickly you stop being the person who gets handed instructions and start being the person who writes them.

Come talk to us

Bring us your transcript, your certifications, your work history—even if it’s messy, even if it’s from fifteen years ago. Let us tell you how much of it counts. Most people are surprised.

Visit polytechnic.memphis.edu to explore programs, start your pathway, or just ask a question. Contact us at askpolytech@memphis.edu. We answer.

You’ve done the hard part already. Let’s get you the credential for it.